Tuesday, October 9, 2012

PETA is attacking Pokemon for promoting animal abuse to children. Say what!?
This has got to be the most ridiculous and stupidest thing I have came across in a very, very long time...
I saw this news before I went to work, and I could not wait to get off work so I could look further into the issue. I went on the PETA site, and they have a Pokemon parody game you can play. In the game, you play as abused Pokemon, trying to free themselves from sick-minded people.

Just for the fun and to satisfy my curiosity, I tried the game.

Basically, I am playing as the Pokemon, fighting against people.
I must say that this game sickens me. First of all, they make the people in the game all look like blood-thirsty, psycho murderers. They have blood all over their clothes, and all hold weapons. The Pokemon in the game are in disgusting condition - blood, syringes stuck to their heads, missing parts of ears, etc.
When was Pokemon ever like this? I don't remember any scenes in the episodes or the games that portray people to be sick-minded freaks who find pleasure in torturing Pokemon. And when the occasional bad guy comes along in the story that decides to use Pokemon for his/her own gain, they usually end up getting taught a lesson.

I took some screenshots while playing the game...

"Cheren uses Tail-Docking!"
Okay.. what? I didn't catch it in the screenshot, but that Cheren person takes out a pair of scissors and attacks Pikachu by snipping his tail?
If anything, this one action is more abusive to Pokemon than any other Pokemon anime, manga or game has ever been, combined.

After you win the battle, Cheren talks about how there is no need to walk Tepig because Tepig is happy that way.
I remember, many times, in the Pokemon TV series, trainers let out their Pokemon so they can enjoy food or whatever with them. And the trainers cannot force Pokemon to stay in their Poke-balls. There was this one episode where Ash was freezing in a cave, and all his Pokemon popped out of their Poke-balls so they can all huddle together to stay warm. There are also other instances where Pokemon just decided to pop out of their Poke-balls.

The things they made Professor Juniper say is highly inaccurate. The professors in Pokemon do carry out researches, but I don't remember them doing any type of unethical experiments on Pokemon. In the PETA parody, Professor Juniper uses "dissection", and carries a knife and a big syringe in her hands. This just makes her look like somehow who experiments on Pokemon for fun, which is nothing like anything that has ever happened in the actual Pokemon storyline. In fact, don't trainers send Pokemon back to the Professors' labs so they get taken care of when there party of six is full? =_=

On the way, you find these treasure chests... three in total - first one contains a sad video about animals, second is a wallpaper, and third are trading cards you can download. You can correct me if I'm wrong because I didn't deliberately remember the order.

And then you run into an enemy that apparently kills Pokemon for their skins to make clothing. Again, this is another instance where PETA is just making stuff up.

When did any real Pokemon plots have people attempting to kill Pokemon to eat them?
Also, the parody keeps saying that Pokemon exist for their own reasons, and that is apparently the super duper mind-blowing line that suddenly changes all the bad people's minds.

Okay... this is the part that is probably the most inaccurate ever.
Ash not caring about his Pokemon? "Have I ever shown an inkling of concern about you one way or the other?" this fake Ash says...

Hmm. How about the very first freakin episode?

When Ash and Pikachu were chased by Spearows, he put in a lotof effort to protect Pikachu - a Pokemon he had just met and just treated him like crap. If anything, this shows kids to be patient with animals, even if they do not befriend you right off the bat.
And anyone who saw the first Pokemon movie can probably agree with me that Ash treasures Pikachu more than himself. He protected Pikachu when Mew-Two attacked, and turned to stone. I think this shows how loving trainer protects Pokemon rather than abuses Pokemon.

Aside from Pikachu... What about when Ash let his Butterfree go because that was what was best for Butterfree? Actually, Ash let a lot of his other Pokemon go when he felt that leaving him would be better for them. So what is this bs about Ash not giving "an inkling of concern"?

PETA's parody also portrayed Ash as a heartless being who sees Pokemon only as a means for money-making. Again, INACCURATE! What's more crazy is that after you defeat the fake Ash, one of the "alternatives" to money-making suggested was to use people instead of Pokemon. How is that better? I don't think teaching kids to use people for money cancels out teaching them using animals for money. Not to mention that Ash never thought about using Pokemon for money...

This last screen that appears after you've finished the game really made me laugh.
"There's no place in this world for the mistreatment and exploitation of Pokemon!"
Silly PETA, that is just about the entire theme in Pokemon.

What this parody game says about PETA is that they are attention-whores. They obviously have not seen or played enough Pokemon to understand the theme or messages behind the story. They are over-thinking, and arguing against something with imagination.

I, personally, am a Pokemon fan, and have been ever since 14 years ago. I am also an extreme animal lover - I cannot stand the though of animals being mistreated and I tear up just hearing sad stories about animals. If what PETA is trying to claim is right and Pokemon does promote animal abuse, then Pokemon is failing pretty hard at promoting it, but Pokemon was never promoting such a thing.